Combined splice bar and shim



Feb. 15, 1955 LAN5|NG 2,702,161

COMBINED SPLICE BAR AND SHIM Filed 001:. 7, 1949 IN VENT OR United States Patent COMBINED SPLICE BAR AND 4? 11 Horace L. Lansing, Rutherford, N. 1., assignor to Poor & Company, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Delaware Application October 7, 1949, Serial No. 120,144

2 Claims. (Cl. 238-244) This invention relates to rail joints, and more particularly to a unitary joint bar and shim construction to be used in connecting the rail ends.

In the maintenance of railway track, it is generally well known that during the normal life of a rail at least two sets of joint bars, either new or reformed, will be required to connect the rail ends. Thus, the original cost of the joint bars is multiplied at least twice over the useful period of the rail. The expense of transporting and handling new joints, or making and transporting reformed. joints, for replacement installations therefore assume proportions of considerable magnitude, and, from the standpoint of economy in maintenance, railroads are constantly endeavoring to eliminate this undesirable factor of maintenance cost. One way of meeting the problem has been to use separate shims on the head or head and base of the bar so that one set of joint bars can thus be reserviced to last the life of the rail. This practice of using separate metal shims as such, has not come into general or standardized use, not because it does not produce a better joint and effect economies, but because of the difliculty in installation and consequent cost caused by the handling of an increased number of separate parts.

Primarily the objection to the general use of shims is that installation is difficult and slow for track crew members who must hold the otherwise loose and separate shim properly in place during installation of the joint bar. For example, in employing separate metal head shims or base shims it is necessary that they be held in place manually in either the head fishing or base fishing area of the rail, and the heavy joint bars manually moved or skid into position. The use of the hands and fingers in this operation is also hazardous because of the risk of having them mashed or cut, and tongs or other tools are impractical since they are awkward and in the way of assembly operations and do not contribute to accurate emplacement. Even though, in the case of head shims, the bars are preliminarily positioned relative to the rail, and the shims to the bars, and all loosely assembled by bolts, the separate head shims have a tendency to cock, skew or shift and therefore are seldom properly seated. Alternatively, if the loose shims are applied to the head, or head and base, of the bar under present practice, it will be apparent that they will shift either under their own weight or because of unbalanced frictional contact during the relative movement of parts to an undesired position. The tediousness, as well as the time and labor and consequent expense, incident to this operation, can, therefore, be readily appreciated. And, moreover, since the work is done by unskilled track crews, there is no assurance that the shim is properly located in the final installation.

The present invention overcomes the objections and disadvantages incident to prior shim practice by providing a joint bar to which one or more shims are secured so that both the joint bar and the shim or shims may be handled and set in position as a unit at the rail ends without any more effort and expense than would be required to set the joint bars alone in place without the shims.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an article of manufacture comprising combined units of rail joints and shims which may be expeditiously handled without the difliculties attendant to many decades of shim usage.

Another object is to provide means for securing the shims to the joint bars to meet any particular requirement in practice to the end that the shims may be held on the clampingly engaging the head of the bar;

Figure 2 is a perspective view of a unit showing a shim of the intermittent bearing type clampingly engaging the head and base surfaces of a bar.

Similar reference characters designate corresponding parts throughout the several figures of the drawings.

According to Figure 1, the joint bar B, having at least one longitudinal loading surface and spaced inner and outer nonloading surfaces substantially perpendicular thereto, is equipped with a head shim S which is generally of transversely channel formation. That is to say, the shim S3 is provided with a wing 3 adapted to engage the inner non-loading surface of the bar and an outer wing 4 separated from the wing 3 by a medial bearing surface 5. The wing 4 is preferably provided with an inturned lip extending continuously along one edge thereof. The opposite wings 3 and 4 are spaced apart a distance less than the non-loading surfaces with which they engage and are also springy or resilient to permit the shim S3 to be assembled to the bar B by merely snapping the same in place on the head of the bar. For example, the wing 4 and lip 411 may be positioned to engage the outer upper head of the bar and then the entire shim snapped into position so that the opposite wing of the shim frictionally engages the head of the barto become embracingly interlocked therewith and provide the unitary structure forming the basis of the present invention.

The range of application of features set forth in Figure 1 is illustrated in Figure 2 wherein the shim S4 has upper and lower medial portions 6 and 7, respectively, for engaging the upper load bearing surface as well as the lower load transmitting surface of the bar, and also has the resilient wing portions 6a-6b and 7a-7b so disposed as to clampingly embrace the non-loading surfaces at both the head and foot portions of the bar. In that connection it may be noted that the outer edges of the upper wing 6a and the wing 7a may take the form of an inturned lip to augment the clamping action of the medial portions 6 and 7 to assure unitary connection between the shim and bar.

The wings 6b and 7b are formed integrally to maintain the lower medial portion 7 in appropriate relation to the lower load transmitting surface of the bar during appli cation of the unit and to assure its proper position when the unit is installed in the fishing space of the rail. The wings 6a and 7a at the outer side of the bar and the upper and lower medial portions 6 and 7 are initially less While Figs. 1 and 2 show shims of the interrupted.

bearing type, nevertheless it will be apparent that the invention is equally applicable to continuous bearing shims.

From the foregoing, it will be understood that the present invention overcomes a long standing problem in the field of rail joint application and maintenance by making it possible to readily use shims without additional installation costs, and, at the same time, provide a shim-type joint bar which is free of the hazards or dangers heretofore encountered in placing shims between rails and joint bars, thus effectively expediting installation. It will also be understood that it is within the scope of the invention to use a shim or shims of any desired shape or form in addition to the several forms illustrated. In other words, the invention is primarily directed to a combined joint bar and shim unit wherein the shim and bar are integrated or connected for all normal handling and installation purposes.

I claim:

1. A preassembled shimmed rail joint bar unit for facilitating the application of shimmed joint units to railway rail, comprising, a bar having at least one longitudi nal loading surface and spaced non-loading surfaces substantially perpendicular thereto, a resilient snap-on shim including a medial portion conforming to the profile of the loading surface, and wing portions at each side of said medial portion, said wing portions before application being initially less distance apart than the related nonloading portions which they engage when applied to grip the bar and hold the shim to the bar prior to installing the assembled bar and shim unit in the fishing space of the rail.

2. A preassembled shimmed rail joint bar unit for facilitating the application of shimmed joint units to railway rail, comprising, a bar having an upper load bearing surface and a lower load transmitting surface and spaced inner and outer non-loading surfaces substantially perpendicular thereto; a resilient snap-on shim including upper and lower medial portions conforming respectively to the profile of the said load bearing and load transmitting surfaces of the bar. and wings at each side of the said medial portions for engaging the inner and outer nonloading surfaces of the bar, the wings at the inner side 20 of the bar being integrally connected, and the wings at References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 875,204 Morrison Dec. 31, 1907 l.8ll,342 1,857,952 1,871,977 2,069,361 2,071,397 2,156,312 Schuppner May 2, 1939 2,287,871 Fero June 30, 1942 FOREIGN PATENTS 546,013 Great Britain June 24, 1942 

